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Re: Full Time Working Mom Nursing Past One

Originally Posted by @llli*mommy2lilah

What kind of caregiver do you have? Do they have an opinion about bottles? The only bottles my daughter gets are at the babysitter's house and I'm kind of letting the babysitter take the lead on that one. Well, actually, Lilah is taking the lead. She is not a fan of bottles and we may have more luck getting her to drink the milk out of a regular cup. But anyway, that's not what I meant to post about...

My nephew was formula fed and his mom had him off the bottle at pretty close to a year by replacing a bottle with a sippy cup of milk for each feeding every two weeks, I think ending with the nap and bedtime bottles. He transitioned really well. I think it's a great idea for you to switch one bottle with a sippy cup. I hope it works.

I have a state certified in-home provider who is absolutely in love with my son! She basically lets DS and I lead the way on all feeding topics. She's very supportive on helping him learn to use the sippy cup (even bought me some to try out at home!). We're so blessed with her! My pediatrician is also encouraged us at the 9 mo. check up to use sippy cups for anything besides milk. And because I'd like to be off the bottle once he's off EBM I better get hoppin' on the Great Sippy Cup Exchange!

Re: Full Time Working Mom Nursing Past One

Originally Posted by @llli*nette1977

I have a state certified in-home provider who is absolutely in love with my son! She basically lets DS and I lead the way on all feeding topics. She's very supportive on helping him learn to use the sippy cup (even bought me some to try out at home!). We're so blessed with her! My pediatrician is also encouraged us at the 9 mo. check up to use sippy cups for anything besides milk. And because I'd like to be off the bottle once he's off EBM I better get hoppin' on the Great Sippy Cup Exchange!

I'm glad you have such a great caregiver. I love mine too. Her backyard looks like a park and has a playground. Any small child's dream

Re: Full Time Working Mom Nursing Past One

I took my LO to work until she was 12 MO. I started a new job when she was 15 MO and could not bring her. I was concerned about what would happen to our BF relationship, but it hasn't changed. I started off pumping twice a day in a 10 hour. Then started seeing her at lunch so I dropped a pumping session. I've actually gone a whole day without pumping (only feeding her at lunch) and only had fullness, no engorgement. I wondered about my supply, but I've continued to feed her in the am, at before bedtime and depending on what's going on with her at night. I also feed her on demand (she's very demanding ) on the weekend. She hasn't complained about supply. I imagine if I stopped pumping at work she would be fine, but I'm paranoid about supply and like to give her a couple of ounces in her oatmeal. She doesn't like cow's milk of EBM in a sippy cup so she just drinks water at night. I don't really see an end insight as far as the BFing. Hope this helps.

Re: Full Time Working Mom Nursing Past One

I went back to work when my lo was 14 mo. She had been nursing 3-4 times a day from about 11 mo. until then. I was really nervous about her going back as she had stopped using a bottle (refused it after 11 mo.) but wasn't drinking much from a sippy cup, yet. I decided not to give her any cow's milk - but keep nursing and offer water in a sippy. She still nurses 3-4 times a day and has a sippy with water at daycare and all meals. She eats a lot of fruit and yogurt - so now I don't worry at all about her calcium or liquid intake. Hope things work out for you! We don't co-sleep and we are still nursing at 16 mo. so it can be done!

Re: Full Time Working Mom Nursing Past One

I went back to work when my son was 14months old. I went from nursing him on demand to being away from him 9-10 hours a day. He wasn't interested in cow's milk and I wasn't interested in forcing him to drink it. So he didn't. When continued to nurse on demand while together and he drank water out of a sippy all day while away from me.

Don't assume you need to replace you pumped bottles with milk or that pump weaning will affect your nursing relationship. If you are nursing 3-5x in a 24hour period and your child is eating solids your milk doesn't need to be replaced. That is enough.
Also after a year you can safely trust your body to make enough milk. You will be able to pump wean and still nurse on demand. Lots of mothers report going away from thier child for entire weekends or longer after the year point and being able to simply pick up where they left off when they get home.
So pump wean gradually as you feel ready. Just drop like session at a time. Until you are done.
And don;t feel any pressure in regard to NEEDING your child to drink cow's milk. My son didn't really warm up to it until he was over two. I knew he was still getting enough breastmilk to be fine so I didn't worry. HTH!

Re: Full Time Working Mom Nursing Past One

I don't know why it never occured to me that my son didn't have to drink milk while we're apart if we were breastfeeding on demand when together. That's genius! Our last visit w/ the pediatrician we didn't talk much about weaning because neither her or I needed to talk about weaning at that point. So we haven't had the milk discussion yet. I'm interested to get her opinion at his 12 mo. Thanks for everyone's responses I'm feeling much more confident in the upcoming changes!

Re: Full Time Working Mom Nursing Past One

Originally Posted by @llli*nette1977

Since my DS is accustomed to bottles during the day while I'm at work I'm hoping that replacing those w/ sippy cups of cows milk (or an alternative) won't be too hard on him. But I fully plan on BFing when at home and on the weekends as much as he wants. Has anyone else had success w/ a similar situation? I really don't want to be done with nursing as I LOVE the time it gives us together (even more so since I work outside the home). So if anyone has done the full time working mother thing and nursed past a year I would love any tips and tricks. Unfortunately for us, co-sleeping is not really an option. Thanks in advance!

This is EXACTLY what I'm doing. I pumped during lunch (25 min., since I'm a teacher) once a day all last year, nursed on demand all summer, and now I nurse him about 3x a day during the week, once or twice at night, and on wkends on demand. He drinks rice milk or soy milk at the sitter's. It works beautifully for us. Best of luck!!